Imaging charge-migration in chiral molecules using time-resolved x-ray diffraction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of time-resolved x-ray diffraction to image charge migration in chiral molecules, revealing enantiomer-specific differences and linking diffraction signals to electronic dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to visualize charge migration in chiral molecules using time-resolved x-ray diffraction and explores its connection to electronic continuity equations.

Findings

Significant differences in diffraction signals between enantiomers.

Correlation between diffraction signals and electron density dynamics.

Potential for real-time imaging of charge migration processes.

Abstract

Four-dimensional imaging of charge migration is crucial to the understanding of several ubiquitous processes in nature. The present work focuses on imaging of charge migration in an oriented epoxypropane: a chiral molecule. A linearly polarized pulse is used to induce the charge migration, which is imaged by time-resolved x-ray diffraction. It is found that the total time-resolved diffraction signals are significantly different for both enantiomers. Furthermore, a connection between time-resolved x-ray diffraction and the electronic continuity equation is discussed by analyzing the time-dependent diffraction signal and the time derivative of the total electron density in the momentum space.